THE arrival of five new boats will allow youngsters to sail into adulthood at Himley Hall Sailing Club.

Hundreds of children are introduced to the sport each year due to the club's relationship with schools, youth groups, community organisations and its own Sportivate programme.

But the club noticed that as young sailors got older, their enthusiasm waned, which is why the new Byte dinghies come in.

The club hopes that the boats, which were officially unveiled on Saturday by the Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Dave Tyler, will make the sport more accessible for those over the age of 16.

Club commodore, Tony Sutton, said: “Older children and young adults outgrow our junior Topper training boats, both in terms of size and skill development.

"Because much of our club activity is aimed at older adults, the boats that are suitable for this audience aren’t so appealing to youngsters, who are more attracted to performance sailing in fast, modern boats.

“Without regular engagement and new challenges youngsters can tend to drop out."

Mr Sutton said the new boats, – of which four were purchased with a £10,000 Sport England Small Grants award – will not only "provide a learning curve for maturing young sailors" but a "pathway from junior to adult dinghy classes to keep them sailing into adulthood".

He continued: “Sailing provides fresh air, exercise and fun. In addition to developing sailing skills, young people develop many fundamental life skills too, such as confidence, team building, independence, decision-making and communication.

“We have evidence that learning to sail is an attractive experience for youngsters locally. By being able to offer more learn to sail and more improver opportunities to young people and their families too, we aim to retain more sailors, develop their skills and give them a healthy, wide-ranging activity they can enjoy for life.”

There are still a few places available for anyone aged 11 to 25 to take advantage of eight hours of completely free training in August courtesy of the club’s Sportivate programme, which is funded by Sport England.

For more information about the session on offer, email the club's training secretary, Lucy Griffiths at lucygriffiths1112@gmail.com